


it'll all be worth the wait

by dreaminginside



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, M/M, Past Lives, Romance, Tarot, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 03:59:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15134627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreaminginside/pseuds/dreaminginside
Summary: Baekhyun has never been one to put his fate in magic and cards, but drowning in the shade of his past and the prospect of his future, he thinks that shit, what does he have to lose.





	it'll all be worth the wait

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know anything about anything this is a lot of googlefu and making things up and fulfilling aus that i'm never going to write fully but i hope everyone likes it <3

“Alright, let’s get started then shall we?”

Seulgi’s voice is soft, but Baekhyun is more focused on the glint of gold paint on her nails as she cuts the cards in her hand, separating them into piles and twisting them at an angle before shuffling the deck again.

He thinks, not for the first time since he stepped inside of the unassuming shop, that this might not have been the greatest idea ever. 

But times are tough, Baekhyun is lonely, and Chanyeol gave him a coupon last week as a birthday gift (terrible gift, but Baekhyun has yet to figure out how Chanyeol can only give good gifts when there’s no occasion for it. Still better than the pair of socks he gave him last year.) to the little fortune teller shop that one of Kyungsoo’s friends had opened in town. This may or may not have been the byproduct of listening to Baekhyun’s complaints of how certain it is that he will die alone, surrounded by no one but twenty cats.

Kyungsoo had pointed out that twenty cats would make him very much not alone, but actually surrounded by a lot of litter boxes, but Baekhyun has no time for people ruining his hyperboles. He is twenty five years old, has been to more weddings than he would like to count, and wants someone to poof him a boyfriend or girlfriend or any kind of other that is significant into existence so his right hand can get a short break. He’s done enough serial dating and is too handsome to be dealing with these woes.

So ten percent off a tarot reading seemed like a good option at the time. Someone to lie to him and tell him his One True Love is right around the corner afterall? Sign him up!

He figures it’ll be like cocaine for his lonely heart, just without the illegality and imminent jail time. Everyone wins and he’s only out forty bucks (ten percent off!).

“I was hoping you’d have some magic hidden around to trick someone into falling in love with me, maybe some handy voodoo, but if cards are what we have then I’ll take what I can get,” Baekhyun shrugs, and Seulgi smiles wide. It makes Baekhyun feel a bit like a gazelle about to be eaten by a lion, so he distracts himself by eyeing the crystals arranged around the room.

“No magic or voodoo here, you can go buy Harry Potter books for that if you want,” She remarks, and Baekhyun can see how she’s friends with Kyungsoo. No time for his bullshit, discounted or not. “But my readings are a bit special, so I just wanted to make sure you were prepared.”

“Do I need a seatbelt then?” Baekhyun says with a raised brow, because he thought those kinds of lines were more left to the old ladies from the old country who tell you winning lotto numbers in their crystal balls. There doesn’t seem to be balls of any sort around here though, excluding Baekhyun’s blue ones.

“Nevermind, you’ll see what I mean if you’re meant to,” Seulgi shrugs her shoulders, bringing the deck back together and laying a delicate hand on the first card, pulling out five as she talks, arranged in a row. “For your reading, the cards will show you the love of your past, present, and future as well as the beginning and end. And hopefully you’ll learn something helpful from them so you can trick your love on your own.”

“Now, your first card is the past,” Seulgi’s hand rests on the second card in, and Baekhyun wants to comment that it can’t actually be the first then, but he feels a bit frozen. The gem on her nail glints in the low light as she flips the card over.

Baekhyun blinks once, slow.

“Upright Sun.”

Baekhyun blinks again, the ground gives out beneath them, and he falls.

 

 

Baekhyun opens his eyes and gasps like it’s the first time he’s ever taken a breath.

Seulgi is nowhere to be seen, and he feels wrong in his own body, looking around as his body moves on autopilot, raising the cigarette in his hand to his lips and taking a long drag from it. The room is filled with the smell of smoke and alcohol, and Baekhyun has to wonder what is going on because this can’t be good for anyone’s health.

“Did you just choke on your smoke? It’s been years since I’ve seen you do that.”

Memories filter through Baekhyun’s mind slowly, and supply a name to the playful voice. The body that is his but not quite turns, and Baekhyun feels himself smile as he looks at Jongdae, sat in front of a small table and surrounded by discarded sketches. 

_Jongdae_ , of course. Baekhyun resigns himself to fall back into autopilot, and lets the not quite him fill his head with all the information it needs to know, fleeting threads of facts that fit into the puzzle of the man he is and the man he sees in front of him.

Jongdae’s atelier, where he is, that he just got into via the fire escape as is their usual routine for when Jongdae is too busy to meet him at his apartment and Baekhyun coming in through the front door would cause an uproar from seamstresses who consider him a distraction. Camera heavy around his neck with photos that need developed for the story that Life Magazine is running on the preparation for Jongdae’s first collection since the war ended. A whole stack of photos, unpublished, in a box under his bed of when he convinced Jongdae to model for him, black and white and soft as he let Baekhyun take as many candids as he wanted under le tour eiffel, an unofficial tour through the city, more patience and love reflected in two colors than an American boy in Paris deserves.

Baekhyun and his other self’s hearts skip in tandem, and Baekhyun knows he’s in love.

He would be much more excited about this if he had a single fucking clue on what was going on or how he got there. He’s going to kill Chanyeol.

“Hello? Earth to Baekhyun?” Jongdae raises a brow, and Baekhyun notices the ink streaked on his cheek. It’s horribly endearing. “I know I’m nice to look at, but you could say something. I asked your thoughts on the concept of the collection.” 

“Shut up,” Baekhyun mumbles, and his mouth and body seem to know what is going on, so he lets himself just follow the cues. Like this has all happened before. “You know whatever you design will be incredible, I don’t know why you even bother asking me anymore. Especially since you hate my fashion sense.”

“I don’t hate it,” Jongdae placates, taking a sip from the glass on the table and scrunching his nose. Baekhyun walks over to see the designs that have been saved from the paper pile on the floor, and thinks that this is really beyond him, but they look beautiful. “I tell you that you look like you’re playing dress up in your father’s clothes _one time_ and you can’t let it go. That suit was fitted terribly too, I was justified.”

“What can I say, I’m a Taurus,” Baekhyun says, and Jongdae huffs like he’s heard this as an explanation for everything. He quite possibly has, the memory bank that Baekhyun is flipping through isn’t fast enough to catch him up. “Now I have you keeping me dressed to your standard, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, you do have me,” Jongdae says, and Baekhyun thinks it feels strangely heavy to hear, like a metric ton of bricks dropped on his heart when Jongdae tips his head back to look at him. He snatches the cigarette out of Baekhyun’s hand and takes a long drag, ignoring Baekhyun’s hand pulling on his hair in retaliation. “Though I feel at this point I feel like I keep you undressed just as much.”

Baekhyun grins with all his teeth showing, starting to feel comfortable in this skin, and Jongdae drops the cigarette in his glass in favor of turning around on his stool and tugging Baekhyun down onto his lap. It nearly sends them both to the floor, but Baekhyun’s smile doesn’t fade, his memories tell him he’s used to Jongdae trying and failing to be smooth.

“Is that your way of saying you’d like a break?” Baekhyun cocks his head, Jongdae’s hands warm on his hips through the material of his turtleneck, too thin for the chill outside but suddenly not thin enough because he wants Jongdae’s hands on his skin instead. He strokes his fingers over the back of Jongdae’s neck, balancing himself on Jongdae’s thighs and leaning in close.

“ _Now_ you’re going to play coy?” Jongdae says, nearly a whine, breath puffing over Baekhyun’s cheeks, and it takes all of Baekhyun’s strength, his current and evidently past self’s, to not kiss the hell out of Jongdae. “I’ve been under a lot of pressure recently, you know.”

Jongdae’s pout is cute, and Baekhyun is close enough that he can count every freckle and mole on his face. Memory tells him he’s mapped all of them out before, and Baekhyun can’t help but want to do it over and over again.

“Well, let’s relieve some of that then,” Baekhyun lowers his head and whispers it against Jongdae’s temple, lips brushing against the small marks there in a way that makes Jongdae shiver, trailing over a sharp cheekbone until Baekhyun catches his lips, unexpectedly soft. Baekhyun figures only a different incarnation of himself could be this smooth. “Poor Jongdae works so hard, I just _have_ to let him fuck me so good he’ll pass out from exhaustion and I can carry him out the fire escape to force him into sleeping at home for once instead of on his drawings.”

Jongdae’s laugh is sharp, and Baekhyun is nearly sent to the floor again before Jongdae’s hands catch him again, pulling him down onto his mouth in a way that is decidedly less soft and more teeth and tongue. Jongdae kisses him like he’s going to suck the soul out of Baekhyun’s body, and Baekhyun, feeling somewhat like a passenger in what seems to be his own mind still, believes it could now very well be possible. His fingers curl in the lapels of Jongdae’s suit in a way that feels very anchoring, and he tastes the smoke and whiskey on Jongdae’s tongue when he sucks it into his mouth, bitter in a way that balances out the sweetness of Jongdae’s low moan.

Jongdae’s hands slip into his back pockets to pull him closer and grind their hips together, and Baekhyun nearly dies on the spot. He doesn’t really care how he got here suddenly, just wants to see this through to its completion and keep on kissing Jongdae until God comes for him. He doesn’t know if he’s ever been touched with this much want before.

Baekhyun is panting when Jongdae pulls back, lips curled in a wicked grin, eyes sparkling in full color what the artist in Baekhyun wants to capture forever on the camera squished between them, but even he knows not to ruin a moment like this, even though something in the back of his mind tells him he has definitely done that before, a photo of Jongdae in his secret pile looking incredibly indignant with sex hair and hickies down the line of his neck. The memory slips between Baekhyun’s fingers, neither here nor there, and he’s brought back when Jongdae gives him a short kiss, murmurs against his lips something he suddenly can’t hear over a buzzing in between his ears.

He blinks fast when he pulls back, confused, and the last thing he sees are Jongdae’s soft eyes, black and white in a frozen moment from his camera, filled with an amount of feeling that threatens to drown him again.

He blinks again, slow, and lets himself drown.

 

 

“What the _fuck_ was that,” Baekhyun stutters when his eyes blink open again, gasping, and Seulgi looks at him like she has no patience for him. Her hand is still on the card, an image of a sun staring back at him, and Baekhyun’s brain feels addled. How long has he been sitting here? 

He did ask for magic, he supposes. Be careful what you wish for may be the moral he is learning now, very PBS.

A quick look down tells him he isn’t popping a boner at least, which is good, because he may have had to run out on sight if that had happened. Even a crazy hallucination has just blue balled him, incredible.

“As I was saying, the sun is your past,” Seulgi continues, speaking to him slowly, and Baekhyun wants to shake her. “I’m assuming you just saw some of your love in the past, but in case you need further elaboration on it, it symbolizes joy and happiness. Love and affection that had been radiated to those you care about.”

Baekhyun had figured talking about his past love would be more of an explanation of that the time he and Soojung had kissed under the playground slide when they were ten indicated that he missed out on love forever because he was a bad first boyfriend and didn’t go to her birthday party, or some other bullshit. Definitely not…. whatever just happened. Time travel? Past as in past lives, apparently. He’d actually like to go back to making out in a design studio in Paris if possible.

“Wait, did you see all of that too?” Baekhyun says as a realization hits him, and he is about to be incredibly embarrassed if a friend of a friend just saw him ready to do the splits on apparently one of his past selves boyfriend’s dick. Why do these things happen to him.

“No, I don’t see what you do, the cards show the visions to those meant to see them,” Seulgi rolls her eyes like she knows what he saw anyway though, and it doesn’t really encourage Baekhyun. If he wasn’t so curious about the rest of the cards, he would probably run for the hills. Kyungsoo has always said that self preservation isn’t one of his strong suits. “But do you see what I mean now? Be prepared before going through with the rest of the reading, Baekhyun.”

“Yes yes, I am,” Baekhyun says again, because he did pay for this after all, and if these crazy ‘visions’ are going to save him from twenty cat damnation then he is still down for it. He licks his lips and can swear he still tastes smoke. “The present better be as good as the past, or I may as well just off myself now.”

“You’re so charming, it’s a real wonder you have me reading your love life for you,” Seulgi says, and Baekhyun wants to wave his wallet around to remind her that yes he is indeed paying her to be nice to him. Typical. “Onto the present, then.”

Her hand flips the center card, and Baekhyun closes his eyes and braces himself, he wants to be ready this time.

Nothing happens.

“Reversed High Priestess,” Seulgi says, and Baekhyun can swear she is trying not to laugh at him. He doesn’t know why, everyone else seems to have no problems in holding it back. “Sorry, visions of the present don’t tend to happen as the present passes immediately. Try again for the future.”

“No big deal, I’m used to being a dumbass in public,” Baekhyun says dryly, and this time she does laugh. Score one for Baekhyun, still witty despite having apparently just taken a tour of a past life where he was much happier and sexed up. “Just tell me what I’m supposed to do to stop me from going to petco after this and adopting every cat in sight.”

“A creative way of putting it,” Seulgi rolls her eyes, but doesn’t seem to understand the weight of Baekhyun’s words. A quarter life lonely crisis is very serious, her words decide the fate of if he’s going to solve the mystery of how many cats one man can fit in his arms at one time or not. “The High Priestess in reverse signifies your difficulty in listening to your intuition. You’re probably feeling lost and confused, and when the time comes you need to let go and do what your heart tells you too, no matter the opposition you may feel from your usual logical side of thinking.”

Baekhyun thinks she’s right about one thing, he is definitely confused.

“I feel the need to specify in your case that this does not mean you should follow your gut in filling your apartment with animals to fill the void,” Seulgi adds, like she knows that Baekhyun is ready to take that as yes, go ham on the void filling. “It means when a new relationship opens up, follow your gut and not your commitment issues.”

Bingo. Baekhyun tries not to let his mouth twist to let her know that she might be onto something, half of Baekhyun’s singleness has come from the fact that he tends to overthink the issues in his own relationships and run before he can get left. He’s really out here sabotaging himself.

He thinks he could be his own therapist at this point. 

“Thanks for the sound advice,” He says instead of reading off his self made ‘what is wrong with Baekhyun’ chart. “I’ll make sure to pencil it in when I’m running after the love of my life on the street after they dump coffee on me or whatever meet cute this involves to ask them out on a date, or whatever the priestess here is telling me to do.”

Seulgi shrugs, and Baekhyun mirrors it.

“Moving on to the future,” Her hand moves to the card immediately next to the revealed high priestess, and Baekhyun feels heavy even looking at it unturned. Maybe she slipped something in the tea she gave him before he sat down.

“The World, upright.”

Baekhyun blinks, long.

“Oh here we go.”

And he’s back underwater.

 

 

Baekhyun’s eyes pop open wide, and he feels like everyone is waiting on him.

Somehow this doesn’t feel like something that is new. He’s resigned himself to this new kind of happy insanity, and just gets ready to enjoy the ride.

His hands are being held tightly, and Baekhyun blinks up familiar arms to find Jongdae’s face again, looking at him expectantly and with a fond amount of exasperation, like Baekhyun is the best thing he’s ever seen in his life, and while Baekhyun’s memories reconcile themselves again, he feels like he’s drowning for entirely different reasons.

Jongdae looks different, but Baekhyun’s memories supply that it is indeed Jongdae again, incredibly beautiful Jongdae with tousled hair and tiny dimples in a full suit that will probably come off bit by bit after the ceremony as summertime is _hot_ and Baekhyun feels similarly sweaty in his own. Suits are meant for fancy pictures, not actual functionality. The things people do for memories in pictures, he supposes.

“Love, if you don’t repeat after Lu Han and are planning to leave me at the altar, I will kill you, throw you in the ocean, and make sure no one ever finds the body,” Jongdae whispers at him, but there’s a smile on his face that makes Baekhyun wonder if he could ever actually go through with it. The memories fly past him too quick to take them all in, but Baekhyun is starting to get an inkling that maybe he has one of those incredibly corny One True Love Soulmate-y Things (the capitalization is necessary) going on if all of this is real.

Awesome.

“You can’t pull the till death do us part until we get past the _i do_ s, Jongdae,” Baekhyun whispers right back, and a small echo of laughter from the front row of seats pulls Baekhyun back into the reality of this is his future _wedding_ of all things. 

And what do you know, there isn’t a cat in sight, besides the classic overused comparison of Jongdae’s smile to a kitten. Baekhyun still isn’t tired of it though, wants to kiss the smiling corners of Jongdae’s lips even now, though that would probably be frowned upon before the whole you may now kiss the groom thing. 

Who knows, maybe Jongdae is more of a dog person too, Baekhyun wouldn’t complain.

Jongdae steps on his foot, and Baekhyun gets the message loud and clear.

“Yes, I do, can we please kiss now?” Baekhyun feels himself say, running his thumb over the ring on Jongdae’s finger, and it’s a bit surreal to think that he of legendary commitment phobia is getting married of all things, but Jongdae’s grin is so blinding that he doesn’t care. If this is truly his future, maybe it should be the sun instead of his past.

He almost wants back to his present right now, to figure out how the hell he manages to trick someone like Jongdae into falling in love with him, because that is the only explanation he can think of as to how he can get someone that seems as radiant as Jongdae seems to be. His filtered memories give him a short highlight reel of all Jongdae’s qualities that make him less than perfect, but Baekhyun feels that tugging at his heart again, and thinks that that might be even better.

And this isn’t some weird past life, this is definitely at least a possible outcome of his current present, and Baekhyun can’t wait to see it.

“Leave it to you to rush through your own wedding,” Lu Han says, rolling his eyes, and Baekhyun thinks that he will probably be fun to get to know, at some point down the line. “By the power vested in me by myself and my win in rock paper scissors against Kyungsoo to preside over this, I now pronounce you married. Kiss already, we know you’ve been wanting to.”

Baekhyun thinks they probably look more than a little dumb, smiles pressed against each other to the hooting and hollering of the small crowd around them. He has a foggy memory of saying his vows, short and sweet because he already said everything he needed to say the night before against Jongdae’s skin, something softer and sweeter and just for the two of them.

They didn’t really need the whole public wedding shindig, but when else do you have an excuse to show everyone how grossly in love you are with the addition of a party on the beach? Never, that’s when.

Even when it starts to rain and everyone else is herded inside, and Baekhyun feels as present as he ever has with Jongdae’s hand in his, smile wide and sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he drags him out into the downpour, spinning Baekhyun on the wet sand until they’re nearly tripping over each other. Jongdae’s hair is soaked and sticks to his forehead, and Baekhyun lets his hand run through it.

“May I have this dance?” Jongdae asks, and Baekhyun would tease him for being gross if he wasn’t so enamoured, smiling wide as Jongdae makes a show of kissing the back of his hand, lips lingering over the ring on his left hand. He doesn’t think he needs to dignify him with an answer, just gives Jongdae his turn at a spin and a dip instead.

This would make for excellent photos, and he hopes that whoever is supposed to be taking pictures manages to capture some of this, and if not then he has the most tangible image of all cupped between his hands, thumbs running over Jongdae’s cheeks when he kisses him with everything he has.

It’s already an out of body experience, but the tape seems to skip more before his eyes, like the black and white pictures he’d seen himself take both minutes and decades ago. 

The last thing he sees clearly is, again, Jongdae’s eyes, full color and heavy with the weight of something Baekhyun isn’t sure he can name. Or if he wants to, ocean of feelings he’s drowning in or not he thinks he might need the time of the present and beyond to work up to be ready to accept all of this.

He blinks.

 

 

Baekhyun opens his eyes, and pitches forward so hard he almost smacks his head on the table and disrupts the cards entirely.

“There’s no way you aren’t magic,” Baekhyun thinks that possibly his coupon should have also come with a barf bag, because he’s beginning to feel a little bit dizzy. Two different possible hallucinations of love stories with the same guy, what are the odds. “Harry Potter my ass, this has to be magic if it’s real. I get married? That’s like, the impossible dream.”

“You just need to broaden your horizons, Baekhyun,” Seulgi shrugs, and Baekhyun thinks he should probably ask Kyungsoo if his friend is a witch or not, which would actually be pretty cool. She clearly isn’t going to tell him, at least. “The World signifies the wholeness and great unity in your life. Appropriate that you saw a wedding then, but your future in love will be fulfillment. Not that you need love to have a fulfilling future, but in this case it seems it’s going to work out for you.”

Baekhyun wonders if maybe he should kiss Chanyeol, or maybe Kyungsoo, and starts rethinking the petco trip. Especially if Jongdae turns out to be a dog person. Is it creepy to think about the future you saw with a man you haven’t met yet and try to consider his preferences? Baekhyun thinks he’s probably going to have to keep this to himself when the time comes or he’ll probably be institutionalised before he can even figure out how he gets a guy like that to fall for him.

If this is all real and he isn’t just having a drug trip and Seulgi isn’t just going to kill him and sell his organs, of course. Rest in peace, Baekhyun, dumbass and looking for love to the bitter end.

“Who even is this guy, though?” Baekhyun asks, shaking himself of more morbid and crazy thoughts because the question has been nagging at him since he came out of the last vision. He almost wishes he had a how to guide for all of this, time travelling visions for dummies maybe. Or even just an idea of how he got into these relationships in the first place. “I’ve seen him twice now, and we’re completely head over ass for each other. That can’t just be a coincidence.”

“I told you, I don’t see what you do. I just read the cards and interpret them, you can apply them to what you see,” Seulgi says, rather cryptically, and Baekhyun isn’t sure what else he expected. For every possible answer he gets, there are a hundred questions. “Something tells me that you’ll know soon enough, though.”

“Why are fortune tellers always so cryptic,” Baekhyun grumbles, sharing his thoughts out loud to draw another laugh out of Seulgi, watching warily as her hand lingers over the first card, as of yet unturned. He’s not sure if his constitution can take much more memory time travelling, or he might really need a bucket or something.

“It’s part of the job requirements,” Seulgi says dryly, tapping the back of the card, and Baekhyun feels like lead. He takes a deep breath. “Are you ready for the beginning?”

“Am I ever going to be?”

She smiles, and flips the card.

“No, probably not. The Fool, upright, very appropriate.”

Underwater he goes, deep deep down.

 

 

When Baekhyun opens his eyes, he’s on top of a crate, crouched outside a window knocking a pattern that seems practiced.

He’s grinning, but he can feel some anxiety leaking into him as the memories of the himself he’s playing audience to start to sink in, and he knocks again impatiently. 

While he waits his eyes flicker downward and he would likely doubletake if he could, because if Paris was his past then he doesn’t even know how to date this apparent beginning of his rather cosmic love life. He knows these kinds of robes from the old timey dramas his grandmother used to make him watch with her as a kid, and when the door finally opens his head turns so fast that his hair nearly hits him in the face, long ponytail whipping over his shoulder.

That is certainly new as well, sure he had something of a mullet in college but he’s never entertained the thought of hair this long. Food for thought when he comes back to himself.

“I see the Prince continues to be entirely too reckless,” The voice beyond the window carries just barely into the night, and Baekhyun doesn’t fight the way his smile widens as arms reach out to pull at his robe until Baekhyun tumbles inside the window. He lands with a grunt on top of the body attached to those arms, picking them both up and straightening them up some and pulling them closer to the light. “What did I say about you coming to me? Are you trying to get us both killed?”

The tone doesn’t match his words, small smile on his face as he fusses over the dirt on Baekhyun’s collar, smooths back strands of his hair that have fallen out of its holder, and Baekhyun catches his hand and leans into it when it pauses next to his cheek, bumping a kiss to the palm. 

It’s Jongdae again because of course it is, and Baekhyun wonders if seeing someone thrice in different incarnations of your love life means you’ve hit the universe’s jackpot. The low candlelight illuminates his face nicely, and the fond smile that settles on Baekhyun’s face feels like a mutual decision of his voyeur self and his memory.

“I feel like you said I shouldn’t do it, but isn’t it a bit backwards? I should be the one giving the orders,” Baekhyun teases, ruffling Jongdae’s cropped hair with both his hands and breaking the softness of the moment, laughing when Jongdae flicks his forehead in retaliation. “Besides, no one important will be looking for the eighth prince at this time of night, stop trying to hide away from me. And you’re leaving again tomorrow, I had to make sure you don’t forget me.”

“Then I shouldn’t need to take orders from the eighth prince either,” Jongdae shoots back, but lets Baekhyun maneuver him down onto the blankets anyway, dressed simply outside of his performance robes, and finds himself with an armful of Baekhyun, cold fingers dancing over his sides. “I haven’t been hiding, some of us just have duties outside the palace, not that you’d know it with how much your father has requested my presence. Sehun says he’s going to organize a coup if we have to perform _Chunhyang_ for the court one more time, at least the Marquis prefers variety. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Baekhyun can’t complain on how much time Jongdae has had to spend in the palace recently, it makes it easier to admire the coy curve of his lips behind his fan and the way his voice bends and twists when he performs, even easier to back Jongdae into dark corners and taste that curve with his mouth instead.

He reels a bit as his body follows the autopilot it’s on and worms its way closer to Jongdae, slinging his leg over Jongdae’s and sitting back on his hips. If the first incarnation of him as he knows it was royalty and having an affair with a performer then Baekhyun isn’t sure if there’s anything he can ever do to top that amount of drama.

“And I doubt you’d ever let me forget you,” Jongdae breaks Baekhyun from his thoughts, hands toying with the ribbon keeping Baekhyun’s robe tied. Baekhyun almost can’t believe he was cashing in on booty calls even centuries ago. Why does every iteration of himself besides his current one have such strong game? Baekhyun is aware he is ruining a touching moment that he is somewhat a part of, but doesn’t care. “But you don’t need to worry, I’d never forget you.” 

Baekhyun’s heart skips, and only the movie quality of this experience keeps him from the knee jerk reaction of squealing at hearing something like that directed at him.

“Well, there’s no harm in making extra sure you won’t then,” Baekhyun leans down and ghosts his breath over Jongdae’s lips, giving in and kissing him long and slow like he’s wanted, humming when Jongdae tugs at his ponytail, trailing kisses over Jongdae’s jaw to taste the trail of light and shadow running down his neck, dying to swallow the moan that reverbates when he grinds his hips down.

Baekhyun’s eyes feel heavy when he nips at Jongdae’s collarbone, and he almost forces out a groan because he knows what’s coming, and he was just getting to the good part. The image freezes, and just before he blinks he sees time skip yet again, feels the warmth of Jongdae’s arms around him and hears his laughter when he wakes up just before dawn with a mouthful of Baekhyun’s hair.

He blinks, just once more.

 

 

“The Fool symbolizes the beginning of your journey, one filled with optimism,” Seulgi picks up like Baekhyun hasn’t been ping ponging around through different versions of himself. He doesn’t feel like vomiting as much anymore, score one for him. “You never know what lies ahead and can only greet it with joy and hope.”

“I can see some of those vibes there, yes,” Baekhyun reels a bit thinking that he and Jongdae have very possibly been doing this song and dance for centuries. Maybe the shoujo mangas really haven’t been lying to him all along. “But none of these readings and visions are really actually helping me because I still have no idea how I’m supposed to actually find this guy or get him to fall in the kind of big cosmic world ending love that always seems to end up happening. I appreciate your vision things skipping to the good parts but I was kind of hoping for more of a how to manual.”

“Sorry, maybe try finding a witch for a love potion or something, I just read cards,” Seulgi’s eyes seem to sparkle when she talks, and Baekhyun thinks that yes, she is definitely a witch. Kyungsoo probably is too, they probably are in a coven together. “The rest is up to you, Baekhyun.”

“This just sounds like an RPG quest now or something,” Baekhyun grumbles, looking at the illustrated fool on the card and feeling a bit like one himself. “Get thee to thine mystery boy and convince him thou art not psycho because thine haft been in love forever and ever.”

“You should probably brush up on your old english, but I have faith in you,” Seulgi smiles a bit, and Baekhyun feels gratified that his newly found mental instability can still bring the laughs. Her hand moves over the card spread. “Let’s finish with the end then?”

Baekhyun feels a spike of unexplainable fear, and grabs for her hand to stop her from flipping the card.

“Very sweet of you to hold my hand, Baekhyun,” Seulgi says, raising an eyebrow, and Baekhyun vaguely wishes that god would take pity and strike him down already. “But I don’t think I’m the one you’re looking for here.”

“Uh, no what I mean is actually let’s not do that,” Baekhyun regains his thought process, and thinks that this all sounds a little bit too ominous for him. He was happy with the sunshine and rainbows and makeouts, he doesn’t want to have to sit through a version of himself screwing things up. He’s done enough of that in his life already, and the end of anything doesn’t have any good connotations. “I don’t have the beginning pieces of any of this, let alone half of the middle, I don’t think I’m ready for the end.”

“It doesn’t have to be bad, you know, sometimes the end makes way for new beginnings,” Seulgi seems amused, and shakes Baekhyun’s hand off, though she doesn’t reach for the offending card and simply consolidates the others. “The card is just meant to help you understand and offer guidance.”

“Well, I think this is enough not understanding for one day,” Baekhyun slaps his hands on his thighs, and thinks he might need to go lay down to process all this. And needs to call Kyungsoo. “I’ll come back when I’m ready for the end. Which I probably won’t ever be since I’m turning a new leaf on fear of commitment in the future apparently.”

“If you say so,” Seulgi shrugs, pocketing the card, and Baekhyun figures it’s better left a mystery. He thinks he can bet on the answer anyway. “Say hi to Kyungsoo for me. And Jongdae, when you find him.”

“How did you know-- actually nevermind,” Baekhyun figures that Chanyeol probably got the coupon from Kyungsoo in the first place, explainable, but there’s no way she could know Jongdae’s name unless she’s a witch and saw all that too. He really hopes she didn’t see all of it. “Don’t tell me. I’ll figure it out myself eventually.”

“That’s the spirit,” Seulgi gives him a wave as Baekhyun trips and stumbles his way out of the shop, not feeling at his most coordinated. Maybe a natural side effect of funky time travelling visions, but he doesn’t want to ruin his exit by turning back around to ask Seulgi.

He calls Kyungsoo instead, making sure to hold onto the rail as he steps down the stairs and tries to remember where the nearest bus stop is. He thinks in front of Starbucks, but he’s too busy trying to witch hunt his friend to check the details right now.

Kyungsoo picks up on the third ring, and Baekhyun wonders if there’s something about the number three today.

“So what’s the problem,” Kyungsoo’s voice is garbled through the phone, and Baekhyun wonders if it’s their connection or the garble of past and future soup floating around in his head. It tastes confusing.

“Why do you always assume I have a problem,” Baekhyun says, giving up on the sorting for now and trying to make a list in his head so all this seems more manageable. Kyungsoo is usually good at helping with this kind of thing, and since he’s trying to figure out if everyone is magic then it’s actually two birds with one stone. “I have so many problems actually, but don’t tell me I told you so, okay?”

“As strong as the urge is, I’ll resist,” Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun already knows he’s smiling. Maybe he should have called Chanyeol instead, he usually commiserates better with idiocy. “You went to see Seulgi, didn’t you.”

“Yes, are you guys in a coven together or something?” Baekhyun cuts to the chase, because if Kyungsoo knows his whole love life by dealing playing cards too he might not be able to look him in the eye for awhile. “If yes, can you tell me how I’m supposed to find this guy I saw?”

“Well you see,” Kyungsoo sounds like he’s going to make Baekhyun’s brain explode in on itself a little and he tries to brace himself for whatever revelation that is to come when he’s interrupted by what seems to be a human body and a whole lot of coffee in the way of his one minded trek towards the bus stop.

“Kyungsoo I’m gonna have to call you back,” He mumbles into the cement, interrupting Kyungsoo’s speech and resigning himself that this is just one of those days. It’s not the first time starbucks has been spilled all over him and it certainly won’t be the last, at least his body probably softened the blow for whoever he ran into.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” Baekhyun finds himself soon parted from the concrete, and blinking up at worried eyes, somewhat confused because this was definitely his fault, but if it makes the situation less awkward then he’s willing to take it. 

He eyes the man’s face, and his jaw nearly hits the ground as he takes in somewhat familiar moles, curled lips and soft eyes, just as beautiful as every other timeline he’s seen him in.

“Oh you have to be kidding me,” Baekhyun mumbles under his breath as Jongdae pulls him up off the ground, and he wonders if he has time to sprint back to Seulgi’s place and ream her before sorting out this situation, which he really wasn’t prepared to deal with. He must have doomed himself earlier talking about the meet cutes. Be cool Baekhyun, be cool.

“You didn’t get hurt did you?” Jongdae sounds worried, and Baekhyun tries not to flounder. Be cool, cool like your past and future selves, and get to know the boy you will evidently marry one day. A big quest to swallow. Do not turn it back around and ask if it hurt when he fell from heaven.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Baekhyun didn’t like this shirt anyway. He’s lying to himself on that but there are more important matters at hand. “Actually, I’m Baekhyun. And I’m pretty sure this was my fault, so maybe let me buy you more coffee?”

“Um,” Jongdae says, blinking slowly, and Baekhyun hopes it’s because he’s so dashingly handsome even with tiny pieces of concrete on his face and coffee down his shirt. He can’t sound crazier than if he told him about the whole future past mumbo jumbo. “That still doesn’t feel right, how about I buy you one to make up for your shirt? And I’m Jongdae.”

Baekhyun resists the urge to say he knows, has a whole reel of memories of Jongdae’s smiles and his likes and dislikes and how exasperated he gets but gives Baekhyun all of his love anyway, and just gives him his most winning smile, because that sounds like a coffee date. Chanyeol says it’s cute and boxey so he hopes that gets across because he doesn’t want to fuck this up and have to go for a plan b like looking up every Jongdae he can find on facebook because that’s just creepy.

Maybe one day he’ll be able to tell Jongdae about all of this and they’ll be able to laugh, because while he has all of these jumbled memories now he doesn’t have them of _this_ Jongdae, and he really, really wants to have them. Follow his gut, and all.

“Fine, you buy one and I buy one and then we’re even,” Baekhyun babbles because he doesn’t know what else to do at the prospect gestures somewhat wildly and nearly has a stroke when Jongdae grabs his hand to steady him and tugs him towards starbucks. And the future.

Jongdae fixes him with a strange look, but he smiles so Baekhyun takes it as a good sign.

“You know, have we ever met before?”

Baekhyun blinks once, slow, and laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! all of anything is appreciated! title is from strawberries & cigarettes by troye sivan lmao
> 
> hmu on [twitter](https://twitter.com/chennieblossom) if you want to talk about exo or baekchen ❤


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